Running to Stand Still
by SomebodyLost
Summary: They had nothing left to lose but each other. ItaSaku. Time-travel. Flashfic/drabble format.
1. Diverge, Power, & Tears

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**Running to Stand Still**

by** SomebodyLost**

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**Part 1**

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01:** Diverge**

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In another world, another time, Uzumaki Naruto came to the battlefield in the right time to cross paths with Itachi and Nagato.

In this world, things happened differently. All the actions that derailed that meeting were too small, seemingly inconsequential, seemingly unconnected.

Naruto arrived later than he was supposed to. With nobody reminding him to trust in his comrades, nobody to entrust the task to, he went ahead to stop Edo Tensei with Killer Bee on his heels.

Kabuto used a genjutsu and paralyzing jutsu in his attempts of capturing the jinchuuriki. Both trapped with no Sharingan to aid them, Kurama did a last-ditch attempt to get free.

The cave was destroyed. Yakushi Kabuto died.

His last act, as he was obliterated between falling rocks and Naruto's Rasenshuriken, was to take away his summons' wills and have them kill every living, breathing, thing in sight.

Edo Tensei was still in effect.

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02:** Power**

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There was no disease, no failing eyesight to cripple him. He was too strong, too fast, too smart, too deadly.

The Uchiha prodigy was in his finest hour.

His clan would've been proud.

Itachi would've cared less.

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03: **Tears**

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Eventually, after what seemed an eternity of torture and agony, the final slash was dealt.

Now there was no one around. No one, nobody, for miles was alive.

Even through the haze of Edo Tensei's control, Uchiha Itachi managed to look down at his bloody hands.

It was the Massacre all over again. Only this time, it was in a grander scale.

He wanted to cry.

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**Author's Ramblings:**

~ Hello! Yes yes, I started another fic without finishing the others! Such blasphemy! :D

~ This is a flashfic/drabble series. Let's see how this goes, eh?  
~ Since this is drabbly, I would be limiting my Author's Notes. Waaaah...

~ **EDIT**: According to my dear beta/idea-giver rabidbehemoth, the drabbles are more awesome when read in one go. So, I'll be setting a limit for each chapter, about, say, 300 to 1000 words each. I'll fit as many drabbles there is until such limits are met. Of course, there such things as cliffhangers and pacing, so sometimes, the drabbles will be long or short to accommodate my storytelling. Heh.

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Cheers!

~ Lost-chan


	2. Plea & Free

04: **Plea**

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It was _devastating_.

The grief, the knowledge that he played a role in the bloodbath, that he played a role in the war, that he was one of the reasons why the war happened at all in the first place, participating in Akatsuki's activities… it was all _maddening_.

Even if he knew that it was by force. That he never wanted any of this.

His body wandered aimlessly. He just wanted to die.

Instead, he came upon Uzumaki Naruto whispering something to the only remaining member of Team Seven, crouching over the jinchuuriki's bloody form. He walked towards them slowly, the heartless, cold, shinobi part of his mind affirming that the kunoichi was easy prey; there was no need to hurry.

Itachi wanted to stop. There was no more need to kill. _Let me spare at least one person_, he plead, but the shinobi part of him affirmed that killing her now would be a mercy.

His crow, holding Shisui's eye, emerged from the recently—deceased Uzumaki Naruto moments later.

Kotoamatsukami activated.

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05: **Free**

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_Protect Konoha_, the genjutsu echoed in his mind as it settled over Yakushi's mindcontrol. The mantra blanketed his mind, ensuring that any outside influence would be tightly locked away.

Uchiha Itachi immediately stopped his swing, his arm—stretched kunai mere inches from the neck of the figure kneeling over Uzumaki Naruto's body. He was finally free, in control of his body. He straightened up, absentmindedly noting that his crow flew ahead to destinations unknown. He stood rooted at his spot, silently watching the girl below, dropping his kunai to the ground without another thought. When she did nothing, no movement whatsoever, Itachi tore his eyes away and studied her teammate's prone, bloodied form.

A large hole, its edges charred and burned — most likely from an electrical jutsu — was in the place of Naruto's chest. It was amazing that he even had the strength to talk to his teammate earlier.

Itachi turned away. He placed all of his impossible hopes on a single shinobi, so it should've been inevitable that all of the heavy expectations would, in turn, topple and bury him alive.

_Just like what happened to me..._

But unlike him, Naruto succeeded in destroying the threat to their peace: Madara, Tobi, and the Juubi.

_The battlefield was now too peaceful_, though, Itachi reflected sardonically as his eyes swept at the upturned earth and the splattered blood. His eyes paused at his crow picking bits of flesh from a mangled figure pinned on an outcropping; it barely resembled a human, but his newly—healed eyes — courtesy of Edo Tensei — was able to make out the red and white _uchiwa_ emblem fluttering from a lone cloth that dangled from its clothing.

"Why did you stop?" a soft voice called from below him, shattering his dread—filled stare. The girl didn't raise her pink head, but Itachi surmised that she was gazing at the kunai he dropped.

Itachi shifted his gaze back down at her, studying her bruised knuckles, the remnants of gloves sticking to her wrists. The rest of her body was dressed in tatters, soaking and dripping with red liquid, although it didn't appear to be all hers. He spared a glance to the body beside her before he resumed his perusal of the broken girl.

Ahead, the body — his brother — _Sasuke_ — finally fell from its hanging place, the heap nothing more than a few pounds of flesh and bones, making the crow squawk in indignation as the thump echoed with unbelievable, silent, finality in Itachi's mind. The rest was probably spread all across the battlefield, or disintegrated into molecules by a monstrous force.

Itachi didn't look up, still preoccupied with staring at the only person left alive in the field — _Haruno_ _Sakura_, his brain supplied — the last of Team Seven.

He didn't — _couldn't_ — blame her.


	3. Hungry, Left, & He

~ Lovely thanks to the fabulous **rabidbehemoth** for beta-ing this whole fic.

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06: **Hungry**

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The girl would not be moving anywhere in her mental and physical state, so Itachi walked away and went towards where his crow was.

Each step — or rather, _jump_, as most of the earth was upturned and destroyed — made his chest feel tight, even if he didn't have breathing problems anymore. The fist clutching his heart tightened with every bound he made, and it seemed to be the one that prevented his heart from beating — nevermind that Itachi knew better.

Itachi landed by the rock outcroppings. He found out that he had to restrain himself from burning his crow with Amaterasu at the sight before him.

The crow was pecking one of the misshapen limbs of Sasu — his _brothe_ — **_kami_** — the _body_. Itachi growled, making the bird screech in surprise. His summoning link was the only thing that made him understand from the the crow's squawks that the bird _just lived in someone's gut for kami-knows-__what-time__ and it was hungry and it only jumped to the nearest body because there was none around for miles except for that orange-clad lad and the pink-haired one might kill him for desecrating his friend but this fellow here is alone anyway —_

Itachi unsummoned the crow with an angry flash of chakra. Shisui's Sharingan in the bird's left eye socket was the only thing that saved it from his wrath.

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07: **Left**

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He knew that he shouldn't have come here, near the _—_

_— where is Sasuk — his — its — legs — arms —_

_— are there even limbs left _— _or are they the things actually splattered for miles — are they even _**solid**_ at this point —_

_— where is the _**HEAD**_?_

_— is there even a head _**left**_ —_

— but he _has_ — _had? _— to see him — _it _—

Uchiha Itachi's knees crumbled to the ground. He put his hands to his mouth and retched.

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08: **He**

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Glazed, unseeing eyes continued to peruse the lazy clouds on the clear blue sky overhead. A slight breeze streamed through one of the numerous fissures on the surrounding upturned earth, and the cloying smell nudged something in Itachi's cottoned/muffled brain. He turned his head to the direction of — and he saw flies buzzing around — _there are maggots down in his _—

He turned away.

Itachi saw his brothe — it — _he — Him_ — as a baby, full of life, as _He_ cried his strong chords out. That baby grew up into a boy, always wishing to please others, particularly their father. He then tortured _That Boy_, warping that love-filled life into something brimming with hatred.

That hatred led to _him_ becoming a literal smear ten feet away from him.

_That Boy_ didn't deserve this. _He_ didn't deserve to be here, to be reduced to such a piteous state of being just an insignificant patch of flesh on the ground.

It was a travesty of his life's — the clan's — _his family's — _piteous sacrifice.

Somehow, he didn't think that the girl sitting by Uzumaki Naruto's corpse would agree.

And, somehow, Itachi found that he really couldn't disagree.

Itachi turned his head again to the — the _—_ the body.

_That's not my brother…_

His brother was dead.

Standing up, using the cursed bloodline of his family, Itachi memorized the _thing_ before him; the rotting flesh infested with maggots, the damned/horrifying smell emanating in the air, the blighted crimson streaks that painted the large area of overturned soil.

Black tomoes shifted their shape, and the last vestiges of Uchiha Sasuke's body burned in dark flames.


End file.
